Adjustably positioned support board for a surgical table



March 12, 1968 R. ANDERSQN ADJUSTABLY POSITIONED SUPPORT BOARD FOR A SURGICAL TABLE Filed Jan. 3,. 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet l G I F ROGER ANDERSON INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS March 12, 1968 R. ANDERSON ADJUSTABLY POSITIONED SUPPORT BOARD FOR A SURGICAL TABLE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 5, 1966 ROGER ANDERSON INVENTOR. BY 2- ATTORNEYS March 12, 1968 A R. ANDERSON ADJUSTABLY POSITIONED SUPPORT BOARD FOR A SURGICAL TABLE 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Jan. 5, 1966 MVKFE ND MM WM UM n A? A 0/ J07 ROGER ANDERSON INVENTOR.

March 12, 1968 R. ANDERSON 3,372,321

ADJUSTABLY POSITIONED SUPPORT BOARD FOR A SURGICAL TABLE Filed Jan. 3, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ROGER ANDERSON INVENTOR.

A T TORNEYS United States Patent 3,372,921 ADJUSTABLY POSITIONED SUPPQRT BOARD FOR A SURGICAL TABLE Roger Anderson, 4221 E. Lee, Seattle, Wash. 98102 Filed Jan. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 518,213 11 Claims. (Cl. 269328) This invention relates to surgical tables, particularly the type composed of a number of sections which are adjustably mounted so that a patient can be supported in a selected one of a considerable number of positions.

Surgical tables of this type have a leg table top section at one end which is hinged at its inner end. This leg table top section can be swung about the hinge point from a horizontal plane to a pending vertical plane and can be locked into position at any point therebetween. This section can be adapted to have a foot support board or knee support board attached thereto for support of the named member when the patient is placed in various operating positions. Heretofore, such support boards could not conveniently be attached to a leg table top section after a patient had been placed on the surgical table and an anesthetized patient could not conveniently be placed on the surgical table with the support board attached thereto. Further, such known support boards could not conveniently accommodate both large adult patients and small infant patients. Because of inconveniences encountered with known support boards, a supine or prone patient, for example, positioned in the Trendelenberg position (head down-feet up) to counteract shock during an operation probably would be supported in that-position by shoulder braces rather than by strapping his feet to a foot support board even though use of shoulder braces might be undesirable because of the undue pressure created in the shoulder and neck region. Also because of these inconveniences with known support boards, it is difficult to support large and small patients in a knee-chest posi tion for back surgery.

A primary object of this invention is to provide a support assembly for foot support or for kneeling support adapted for convenient attachment to the leg table top section of a surgical table, whether the leg table top section is placed horizontally, as for positioning a patient in Trendelenburg, or is placed verticaly as for positioning a patient in a knee-chest position for back surgery. Another object is to provide such a support assembly that can be easily, smoothly and precisely adjusted over a small range as might be required during aspine operation on a patient in the knee-chest position to permit separation of the laminae for dispectomy and fusion so that a laminectomy need not be performed. A further object is to provide such a support assembly that can be easily and smoothly adjusted over a wide range to accommodate adults and infants. Another object is to provide a support board that can be mounted perpendicularly to a mounting section on the leg table top section of an operating table. A still further object is to provide a support board mounting section for a support assembly which is easily and precisely adjustable.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective View showing the support assembly of this invention placed in position for what is commonly termed a knee-chest suspension, and representing in phantom a surgical table to which the support assembly is attached;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged-scale perspective view of a support assembly shown detached from. the table and exploded in the sense that a support board is disengaged from a mounting section therefor;

FIG. 3 is a rear elevational view of the mounting section drawn to a scale enlarged from that of FIG. 2. For maximum clarity in the illustration of the mounting section the associated support board is deleted from this view;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view on the jogged section line 4-4- of FIG; 3;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view on line 5--5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view on line 6--6 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the support assembly of this invention placed in position on a surgical table for supporting a patient in a prone or a supine posi tion; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of a support assembly shown detached from the table.

In general, the support assembly of this invention comprises a support board and a mounting section therefor. The mounting section is attached to the underside of a flat plate comprising a surgical table leg top section. The support board is connected to brackets which can be attached to the mounting section such that the support board extends outwardly from the opposite side of the fiat plate. These brackets are preferably constructed such that the support board can be attached to and removed from the mounting section perpendicularly. Once the support boardis attached to the mounting section, a gearoperated mechanism of the mounting section can shift the support board lengthwise along the leg table top section.

The support board may be either a foot support board.

or a kneeling support board; A foot board extends substantially perpendicular from the leg table top section. A kneeling support, or knee support, board extends outward at an acute but almost perpendicular angle toward th-ehinge point of the leg tabletop section. The kneeling support board is somewhat longer than a foot board. These difierences between a foot and a kneeling board are desirable to accommodate the anatomical difference of the members to be supported.

Referring to the drawings, the support board is denoted generally by the numeral 10and the mounting sectionby 11. The mounting section is bolted or otherwise rigidly secured to a flat plate 12 (leg table top section) of rectangular plan configuration, which is or may be bordered throughout its circumference by an edging 13, upon the back face thereof by an upper and a lower fitting 14 and 15, respectively, which occupy vertically-spaced positions. These fittings are each centered relative to the width of the plate and at each of the opposite sides of center are joinedby a respective one of two rails, as16 and 17, located parallel to the longitudinal median line of the plate in a plane spaced from and paralleling the plane occupied by the plate. These rails are or may be sectionally of a rectangular shape. The rails serve as slides guiding a cross-arm 18 for vertical adjustment in the space between said upper and lower fittings. Side margins of the cross-arm extend laterally a moderate distance beyond the side edges of the mounting plate 12, and along each of the margins there is presented a respective rearwardly directed flange 19 having its outer edge parallel with the slide axis of the cross-arm. It is the function of said side flanges of the cross-arm to detachably connect with and carry the support board. The particular form of construction and mode of attachment serves two important ends. ('1) It gives to the support board an unusually large range of vertical adjustment within which a leg-sustaining surface of the board can be precisely located. (2) It permits: said sustaining surface to be maintained in a horizontal plane when the support board is being detached from or attached to the cross-arm. The manner of these accomplishments will appear and be understood as the description proceeds.

Fitting 14 is characterized in that foot-like flanges, as and 21, are provided along each of the two sides, and each such flange has a hook-shaped heel portion 22 which is prolonged upwardly beyond the upper end of plate 12. Co-axial eyes 23 are provided in the outer ends of these heel portions. In the attachment of the mounting section 11 to the orthopedic table, these eyes receive pins to pivotally connect the hook ends 22 to the upstanding arms of a U-shaped bracket (not shown). The mounting section may be swung vertically about said pivot pins as an axis from the suspended position in which it is shown in FIG. 1 into a more or less horizontal position as shown in FIG. 7 in which it may be either co-planar with or inclined downwardly in a moderate degree from the plane occupied by an adjacent table section such as the pelvic support 24 shown in FIG. 1. To perform this swing motion and sustain the mounting section in the position in which it is swung the table provides a pushpull arm (not shown) having its rear end pivotally linked to the fitting 3.4. The link, denoted by 25, fits in the interstice of a furcate eyed lug 26 which is made an integral part of the upper fitting, being located more or less central to the width of the latter in surmounting relation to a rib 27. A pivot pin (not shown) connects the link to the lug.

Rib 27 is bored and counter-bored from its lower end, and receiving a rotary journal therein while being held against endwise thrust is the necked-down upper end of a jack-screw 30. The jack-screw works in a traveller nut 31 which is bolted to the cross-arm. The rotary axis of the jack-screw parallels the two slide rails 16 and 17. A bevel gear 32 is pinned to a protruding upper end of the jack-screw and is meshed by a bevel gear 33 pinned to the exposed end of a stub-shaft 34 journaled in an ear 35 formed upon the fitting 14. The journal axis of the gear 33 lies normal to that of the jack-screw. The opposite end of stub-shaft 34 presents a squared socket. A socket 37 which is similar but open at both ends is formed in a headed bushing 38. Bushing 38 is securely threaded in the inner end of a hollow crank shaft 40 journaled for both rotary and endwise movement in the flange 20. A crank arm 41 is pinned to the outer end of the crank shaft. A squared rod 42 passes drive from the crank-shaft 4b to the stub-shaft 34, the arrangement being one which permits telescoping of the drive so that the crank arm, when not in use, can be pushed inwardly from the exposed cranking position in which it is shown in FIGS. 2 and 6 into the out-of-the-way recessed position shown in FIG. 1.

Reverting now to the flanges 19, each has a plurality of dowels 43, three being indicated, drive-fitted in horizontal holes which are bored transversely from the outside on axes which coincide as between the two flanges and are spaced uniform distances one above another. An end of each dowel projects outwardly a moderate distance beyond the related flange. Tapped transversely extending horizontal holes 44 and 45 are provided intermediate each adjacent pair of the dowels.

The support board of FIG. 2 provides a first rectangular plate 46 having approximately the same width as the plate 12 but a considerably shorter length. Side edges of this support board are each securely fixed to one leg 47 of a respective one of two angle brackets, fitting in a groove which the leg provides. The other leg 48 of each bracket is notched along its outer edge to provide a series of four horizontal stalls 49, spaced one from another in correspondence with the spacing between the dowels and of a size to receive the dowels. The legs 48 also each carry an upper and a lower knurl-headed clamping screw, as St) and 51. One or the other of these clamping screws threads into one or the other of the two tapped holes 44 or 45, depending upon whether (1) the support board is placed so that the vertical legs 43 are in an upstanding or in a depending relation to the horizontal legs 47, and (2) the set of three dowels are fitted in the upper three or the bottom three of the four stalls 45 This selective placement, together with the jack-screw, gives to the support board absolute precision adjustment within a wide range or possible movement. It should be noted that an operator can apply the support board to or remove the leg board from the mounting section by straight-line movement, a feature of major import considered from the aspect of not disturbing the posture of a patient occupying the table.

The support board of FIG. 8 provides a fiat rectangular plate 146 having approximately the same width as the plate 112. Side edges of this support board are each detachably fixed to one leg 147 of a respective one of two angle brackets, fitting in a groove which the leg provides. The other leg 148 of each bracket carries knurlheaded clamping screws, as 1.50. One or more of these clamping screws threads into one or the other of the tapped holes 144 in flange 119. The flange 119 is of L- shaped configuration to provide a base 119a on which the bracket legs 1.48 can be placed and longitudinally positioned. This manner of longitudinally attaching a sup port could be employed where the posture of a patient on the surgical table would not be disturbed, as where the support board would be attached preparatory to placing a patient in a Trendelenburg position.

By placing the support board in the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, that is where the bracket legs 48 point toward the end of the surgical table, the support board can then be gear adjusted to the hinged end of the leg table top section to accommodate a small patient. By placing the support board in the opposite position shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the support board can then be gear adjusted to accommodate a large patienteven to the extent of extending beyond the end of the surgical table as shown in FIG. 7 thereby effectively lengthening the surgical table.

It is apparent that means could be employed to detachably fix the support board to the angle brackets other than as shown in FIG. 8. Also, means could be employed to attach the angle brackets to the flange other than as shown in FIG. 8 if the FIG. 2 feature of substantially perpendicular mounting was not required or desired.

It is noted that, as here shown, the fitting 14, the crossarm 18 and the fitting 15 are made in a single casting which is then divided by sawing.

Because the support board of this invention is attached to the leg table top section of an operating table perpendicularly to the table section and then adjusted to any required position on the table section, this support board can be used in instances where prior support boards could not be conveniently employed. For example, if a patient must be placed in the Trendelenburg position (head down-feet up) during an operation, a foot support board (see FIG. 7) can be easily and quickly attached to the leg table top section without effecting the patient, the patients feet strapped to the support board by attaching ankle restraining cuffs, and the operating table then tilted to the Trendelenburg position.

Also, an intubated patient can be rolled onto a horizontal operating table and a knee support board can be easily inserted after the patient is positioned on the operating table by bending the patients les at the knee. The leg table top section can then be lowered to the kneechest position shown in FIG. 1. Since the support board of this invention can be adjusted with precision, the lumbar spine of a patient in a knee-chest position can be placed in fiexion by lowering the knee support board away from the patients knees for as long as necessary and then repositioned back to a supporting position quickly and accurately.

It is thought that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing description of my nowpreferred illustrated embodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What is claimed is:

1. A support for a surgical table having a leg table top section mounting plate with front and back faces which comprises a mounting section connected to the back face of said mounting plate; a support board having brackets attached thereto adapted for mounting said support board on said mounting section; said mounting section comprising a cross-arm slidably mounted adjacent and transverse to the mounting plate back face and having side flanges, one at each end, which extend beyond the sides of said mounting plate and which have outer edges parallel with the slide axis of said cross-arm adapted to receive said brackets when mounted from a direction perpendicular to said mounting plate.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said side flanges are each provided with a row of protruding dowels uniformly spaced apart and alternating with threaded apertures; and wherein the outer edges of said brackets are each notched to provide open ended stalls uniformly spaced apart at a distance corresponding to the spacing between said protruding dowels; and wherein said brackets are provided with clamping screws spaced apart at a distance corresponding to the spacing between said threaded apertures.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 including gearoperated means for moving said cross-arm longitudinally of said mounting plate.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said mounting plate back face is provided with fittings at opposite ends, a pair of guide rails extending between said fittings parallel to the longitudinal median line of said mounting plate, and with a jack screw rotatably journaled thereto and positioned between and parallel to said guide rails; and wherein said cross-arm is attached to said jack screw; and including means for rotating said jack screw to move said cross-arm longitudinally of said mounting plate.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein a first bevel gear is pinned to one end of said jack screw; and wherein said means for rotating said jack screw comprises a shaft aligned perpendicular to said jack screw and rotatably journaled to one of said fittings, a second bevel gear pinned to one end of said stub-shaft and meshed with said first bevel gear, and a crank arm and shaft rtatably and telescopically attached to said stub-shaft.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the shaft of said crank arm and shaft is hollow and fitted with a bushing having a rectangular opening therethrough; and

6 wherein said crank arm and shaft is attached to said stubshaft by a rod having a rectangular cross-section and extending from said stub shaft through said bushing and into the hollow shaft.

7. A support for a surgical table having a leg table top section mounting plate with ront and back faces which comprises a mounting section connected to the back face of said mounting plate; a support board adapted for mounting on said mounting section; said mounting section comprising a cross-arm slidably mounted adjacent and transverse to the mounting plate back face and having side flanges, one .at each end, which extend beyond the sides of said mounting plate and which have outer edges parallel with the slide axis of said cross-arm adapted to mount said support board.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7 including gear-0perated means for moving said cross-arm longitudinally of said mounting plate.

9. Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein said mounting plate back face is provided with fittings at opposite ends, a pair of guide rails extending between said fittings parallel to the longitudinal median line of said mounting plate, and with a jack screw rotatably journaled thereto and positioned between and parallel to said guide rails; and wherein said cross-arm is attached to said jack screw; and including means for rotating said jack screw to move said cross-arm longitudinally of said mounting plate.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9 wherein a first bevel gear is pinned to one end of said jack screw; and wherein said means for rotating said jack screw comprises a shaft aligned perpendicular to said jack screw and rotatably journaled to one of said fittings, a second bevel gear pinned to one end of said stub-shaft and meshed with said first bevel gear, and a crank arm and shaft rotatably and telescopically attached to said stubshaft.

11. Apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the shaft of said crank arm and shaft is hollow and fitted with a bushing having a rectangular opening therethrough; and wherein said crank arm and shaft is attached to said stub-shaft by a rod having a rectangular cross-section and extending from said stub shaft through said bushing and into the hollow shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,764,459 9/1956 McDonald 269-325 3,226,105 12/1965 Weickgennant 269324 ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner. D. R. MELTON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SUPPORT FOR A SURGICAL TABLE HAVING A LEG TABLE TOP SECTION MOUNTING PLATE WITH FRONT AND BACK FACES WHICH COMPRISES A MOUTING SECTION CONNECTED TO THE BACK FACE OF SAID MOUNTING PLATE; A SUPPORT BOARD HAVING BRACKETS ATTACHED THERETO ADAPTED FOR MOUNTING SAID SUPPORT BOARD ON SAID MOUNTING SECTION; SAID MOUNTING SECTION COMPRISING A CROSS-ARM SLIDABLY MOUNTED ADJACENT AND TRANSVERSE TO THE MOUNTING PLATE BACK FACE HAVING SIDE FLANGES, ONE AT EACH END, WHICH EXTEND BEYOND THE SIDES OF SAID MOUNTING PLATE AND WHICH HAVE OUTER EDGES PARALLEL WITH THE SLIDE AXIS OF SAID CROSS-ARM ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID BRACKETS WHEN MOUNTED FROM A DIRECTION PERPENDICULAR TO SAID MOUNTING PLATE. 